This blog encompasses the dates of July 10th – July 17th and my experiences on the beautiful Vancouver Island and surrounding gulf islands. But before we get into that, I want to bring to you a funny story that is happening as I type.

I’m currently located in Kanab, Utah. For those who are unaware, it is a desert. Now throughout my life growing up in a public school system, I was taught that desert should mean it’s hot (at least warm) and dry during the day. It can do what it likes at night, but during the day, you best be drinking water and hoping to find shade!

Yet that same public school system has officially failed me as of today.

Showing up in the desert in November had so many pros on our pros/cons list, a big one being avoiding SNOW. For the first year of my life, I was wondering if I could have a snow-free winter. These are obviously not possible in Canada, but maybe this year of travelling would be the year. Heck, I didn’t even pack a snow brush in my Subie for this entire trip.

But oh, how the turn tables. What do I get, on November 9th, in the desert? SNOW. I can’t believe it. Brushing off the car with my hands, totally unprepared for the inches of snow accumulating outside. Pulling out warm clothing. Ha, serves me right. Locals telling me “I brought it with me” as I sport my Blue Jays hat. I deserve it.

Alright, rant over. Let’s get back to the warm summer weeks of July. Maybe the snow will be gone by the time I’m done typing.

Travelling to Beautiful Texada Island

Our first stop on the way out of the West Coast Trail was to our Airbnb in Nanaimo. We had booked about a month in this location, a central point on the island where Victoria, Tofino, Ucluelet, Comox, Courtenay, and Strathcona Park are all within a few hours drive.

Nanaimo itself does not have the best reputation, but we were on the outskirts with good access to bikeable roads and hikes from our front door. Also, Mount Benson, which you’ll see a lot in the coming blogs, was only a 20 minute drive away.

But our first stay in Nanaimo was a short one, spending just one night before heading on up to Texada Island. That one night was filled with unpacking our bags, drying our tent, washing clothes to rid the smell of bonfire, and everything else that comes from spending a week in the wilderness! (Read more about that here, if you’re new: West Coast Trail – Destination Spotlight).

The following day after all those chores was spent ferry hopping to reach the secluded Texada Island! And we, of course, had to bring our bikes.

Becca’s mom was meeting us on the island where she had her own Airbnb, allowing us a spot to stay and explore the island for a few days. And Texada turned out to be absolutely beautiful!

Texada Island is the largest gulf island in between mainland and Vancouver Island, only reachable by taking at least two ferries. This makes the island very secluded and remote, with most of the roads being gravel. Pretty much paradise for a guy like me!

Texada Island Ridge Runner

The island also hosts a resident gravel cyclist that has cultivated the gravel scene on the island. It is now a bike-packing destination for only the most hardcore kind of guys, with different campsites and routes all over the island. I’m not in that hardcore category… at least yet.

The main route on the island is called the Ridge Runner, a 144km and 2,900m elevation route down and up the island on quiet gravel roads. I decided to halve that distance on my route. Seemed a bit much for one day, especially that soon after the West Coast Trail.

I set out on July 12th for my exploratory trip of the island. Aside from the ride from the ferry to the Airbnb the day before, I hadn’t explored anywhere south of the small town of Van Anda where I set out from. I was excited, hoping to spend the day cruising the outskirts of the island with ocean and beach views galore.

And that is exactly what the island gave me!

A blue ocean, sunny skies, beautiful riding temperatures. I couldn’t have begged for a better day in the saddle. Getting my biking legs back under me after all that walking on the West Coast Trail took me a few kilometres, but I was back in the groove and loving it in no time.

My ride took me through a few provincial parks, multiple nice beaches, and up some steep gravel climbs.

Overall, I spent 4 hours exploring the island, going 77km and climbing about 1,500m. The full Ridge Runner takes you down to the southernmost point of the island, known as Anderson Beach Provincial Park, which I decided to skip. Would’ve added a few too many extra kilometres that weren’t required for the first ride back! The map of the ride from Strava is shown below, and Anderson Beach would have been right on the southernmost tip of the island.

And to keep an updated track of the larger gravel climbs I’ve completed on this trip, the Cook’s Bay Climb on Texada Island is definitely worth an addition onto my growing list:

Old list:

• Canmore Climb: 6.2km at an average grade of 5.7%, for a total of 392 metres of climbing.
• Revelstoke Climb: 5.2km at an average grade of 7.3%, for a total of 384 metres of climbing.
• Birkenhead Lake Climb: 2.0km at an average grade of 10.3%, for a total of 208 metres of climbing.

And the new addition onto my gravel list:

• Cook’s Bay Climb (Texada): 5.3km at an average grade of 7.5%, for a total of 397 metres of climbing.

Texada Beach Day

After a good day of riding (and hiking for Becca and her mom) the day before, we all agreed a nice day on the beach was required.

And so the next day we headed over to a couple touristy beaches, Shingle Beach and Gilles Bay, to spend the day. Soaking up the sun, exploring the cliffs and sea life. I’ve probably discussed this before, but as a kid that grew up many miles from either coast (shout-out Onterrible!), oceans truly seem otherworldly. Between sea creatures, tides, algae, and all things oceans, there is so much to discover!

Sea squirts for example. I was on a rocky beach, enjoying the day, when little squirts of water started popping up all around me. The tide was low, they were exposed to the sun, and they were just jetting little amounts of water into the air. I thought I had lost my mind for the first 5 minutes trying to track down the sources of the jet of water. Finally I gave in and Google came to the rescue. Sea squirts! But it’s just something I had no clue about before spending some time on the coast!

We finished the day back at the Airbnb, soaking up the gorgeous sunset views with homemade burgers and sweet potato fries.

Final Day on Texada

Our final day on Texada rolled around too quickly. I spent the morning getting in one last cycle, looking to check out this “abandoned quarry”. Now I’d love to tell you that I somehow stumbled around the ‘No Trespassing’ signs without seeing them… and that’s exactly what happened. But the quarry was AWESOME! A local’s only spot by the look of it. Empty when I arrived, there looked like ample cliff jumping spots, different swimming entrances, and just a nice way to spend a hot day on the island.

The water was a nice shade of green/blue, and if it wasn’t a cloudy day, I think I would’ve been dipping in. But alas, we also had a ferry to catch. Next time Texada, next time.

Becca and I hopped onto the ferry and made it back to Vancouver Island around dinner time. We were able to meet up with one of my elementary school friends stationed in the CFB Comox for a nice meal (shout out to Evan for fitting us into his schedule!) before finally arriving back at our Airbnb in Nanaimo just down the island.

Nanaimo and Travelling Friends

The following day, July 15th, rolled around and we were set to meet our other friend at the airport flying in from Toronto. Eric decided that basically a red-eye flight, departing Toronto at 5am was a good idea. He cruised into Nanaimo around 10am and we took him straight downtown for a nanaimo bar, an absolute tradition in the community. Shops on every corner sell nanaimo bars, and there is always a hot debate as to who is selling the best ones. The town even promotes the Nanaimo Bar Trail as one of their top tourist things to do!

And on top of all of that, I love a good nanaimo bar. Is the word nanaimo starting to get annoying? Perhaps.

Aside from the tour downtown, the first day spent with my old university roommate was pretty relaxed. He slept for about 3 hours on the couch of the Airbnb as he wasn’t able to catch any zzzz’s on the flight. Plus, he heard we were taking him on a hike up Mount Benson the following day, so a good rest was a great idea.

Mount Benson

Eric, Becca and I travelled out to Mount Benson the next morning. A sunny, bright day that should afford us great views at the top of the mountain. Spirits were high, confidence was high!

The trail up Mount Benson, as you can probably assume, is a large ascent. About 730 metres of climbing in the 7.1km loop. That is a substantial hike to bring someone on as their introduction to Vancouver Island wilderness, but we forced Eric into it and he seemed to enjoy himself. For the first kilometre or so anyway.

“My back, my calves, aaagggghhh everything hurts!” were only a few of the complaints we heard throughout the rest of the day. But I have to give him massive credit as he made it to the summit and stood proudly looking down on the city of Nanaimo and the coast beyond. And after 5 minutes of that, the fog rolled and the view was suddenly gone. Wasn’t that a taste of mountain weather for all of us!

This hike is a Nanaimo classic, as Mount Benson sits very close to Nanaimo and is visible from almost anywhere in the city. This was Becca and I’s second time up the mountain, but we’d actually do it one or two more times in the month before leaving Nanaimo. Each new friend that visited, Benson was a must!

We all made our way back into the city and went out for BBQ. Seemed like the right thing to do after a day on the mountain, and what delicious BBQ it was – Smoking George’s for anyone that’s in the area!

Vancouver Island Whale Watching

The three of us decided to do a whale watching tour to cap off the week! Sunday, July 17th we headed out on a boat in the hunt of orcas and humpbacks, the two most common whales found in the Strait of Georgia.

The tour took us about 5 hours of boating around to different sites and seeing different marine life, all the while hoping to bump into a pod of whales going about their business.

But alas, we sadly didn’t see any whales. We did get to try on some cool ‘exposure’ suits along the way. Hoping that exposure will make the blog POP (even though the tour director told us it was for our protection, or something).

Thankfully the tour is well put together, taking us to see some other really cool animals in their usual spots around the water. These included sea lions, cormorants, porpoises and seals!

You should’ve smelt these sea lions on that buoy. They absolutely reeked! And the noises they create are some true grunting and groaning that I’ve never heard come out of another animal. Becca’s favourite stop of the tour, for sure.

Another animal we found was a couple of seals, pictured above! There were a few bobbing in the water, sleeping on their backs. Absolutely adorable, and it was very cool to see them in their natural habitat and not in some glass tank.

Finally, another great sighting was the cliffs on Gabriola Island, where cormorants live out their lives diving for the fish under the waves. I could not believe the sheer amount of these birds, as the cliffs must have spanned a hundred metres with cormorants on every ledge and hole.

So although we did not get to see any whales on this tour, the wildlife and overall boat ride through the Strait of Georgia was definitely worthwhile. Also, with not seeing any whales, we got a free coupon for another tour whenever we wanted! Sadly Eric didn’t get to use his free coupon with his week on the island, but over the next month in Nanaimo Becca and I got out one more time in search of all the supposed whales! More on that in a later blog!

Wrap it Up!

Okay, I’ve been writing for long enough. I hope you’re happy with the content. This week was a doozy, between all the travelling, spending time with Becca’s mom and Eric, squeezing in a dinner with Evan, and all right after coming off the West Coast Trail for the whole week prior.

But we had to make the most of it, and that’s what Becca and I tried to do! So thanks a ton for reading and tune in next week as we continue our adventures with Eric on the wonderful Vancouver Island!